Geoffrey Waddington

Geoffrey Waddington (born September 23, 1904 in Leicester , † January 3, 1966 in Toronto ) was a Canadian conductor and violinist .

The son of a pianist and an opera singer came to Canada with his family at the age of three and began playing the violin at the age of seven. As a scholarship holder he studied from 1921 at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with Ferdinand Fillion , Luigi von Kunits , Leo Smith and Healey Willan and also toured as a violinist through Canada. From 1935 to 1928 he played in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra .

Waddington made his radio debut in 1922 at the station CKNC (from 1933 CRBC), of which he was musical director from 1926 to 1935. He conducted various radio orchestras here, including in the series The Neilson Hour with 460 broadcasts between 1926 and 1933.

After a time as conductor of the orchestra of the Royal York Hotel and the Winnipeg Summer Symphony , Waddington became musical director of the CBC Winnipeg in 1938 . In 1944 he moved to the All-Canada Radio Facilities in Alberta in the same position .

Between 1945 and 1947 he conducted CBC Toronto radio shows such as The Geoffrey Waddington Show and The Edmund Hockridge Show . In 1948 he was one of the co-founders of the CBC Opera Company , with which he successfully performed operas such as Peter Grimes , Albert Herring , Così fan tutte and Deirdre (by Healey Willan ).

In 1952 Waddington became musical director of the CBC and founded the CBC Symphony Orchestra , which he directed until 1964. The works whose premieres he conducted include the Algonquin Symphony (1958), Freedman's Nocturne (1952) and Symphony (1961) by Murray Adaskin , L'Horoscope (1958) by Roger Matton , the Violin Concerto (1954) by Jean Papineau-Couture , North Country (1948), the Suite for Harp and Chamber Orchestra (1949) and Five Concepts (1962) by Harry Somers , Edge of the World (1946) and the Divertimento No. 3 (1961) by John Weinzweig and the Coronation Suite by Healey Willan . Over the years, many well-known musicians such as Percy Faith , Robert Farnon , Samuel Hersenhoren , Zara Nelsova , Albert Pratz and Paul Scherman made their first musical experiences in his orchestras . In 1959 Waddington was awarded the National Award in Music from the University of Alberta .

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• Geoffrey Waddington ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Donald Mitchell, Philip Reed (eds.): "Letters from a Life Volume 3 (1946-1951): The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten" , Faber & Faber, 2011, ISBN 9780571279937